Robotics Competition Regional Kick Off to be Held at Novi Expo Center

DETROIT, Jan. 2 -- How do you get thousands of high school students excited about science and technology? With the FIRST Robotics Competition, an annual design competition that brings professionals and young people together in teams to solve an engineering design problem in a creative and competitive way. The competition kicks off January 5, 2002, at the Novi Expo Center in Novi, Mich. High school students, mentors from local companies, and corporate executives will gather to learn the details of this year's challenge.

Doors open at 7:30 a.m., with executive introductions and speeches starting at 8:15 a.m. and a NASA Television broadcast at 9 a.m. During the NASA broadcast, the problem to be solved will be unveiled, along with project parameters and rules. The challenge involves building a robot to perform specific functions, which in past years have included traveling over an elevated walkway and placing balls into a bin. Students and mentors will gather simultaneously at other regional kickoffs across North America to view the broadcast, and competitors then have six weeks to design, build and test their robots. The students learn to creatively apply mathematics, physics, electronics and other technical knowledge to solve a real-world problem, and they must work within the budgeted amount of time and money. Hundreds of creative solutions will eventually attempt to solve the challenge.

Novi High School and Intier Automotive serve as hosts of the Novi kickoff, which will be attended by students, mentors and judges from many states, including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Massachusetts and Texas. Novi High School and Intier are entering the second year of their FIRST Robotics cooperation, which includes financial backing to build the robot and enter competitions. More important, it includes 12 to 15 mentors from the engineering, testing and marketing departments at Intier who lead over 35 students through the six-week, concept-to-completion robot build. For Intier, the student/mentor interaction yields the true benefits of the program, and it supports their goals to work actively in the community and help develop young engineering talent.

``Once you get involved with the students and the FIRST program, you're totally hooked,'' said Joe Gabiniewicz, general manager of MAT, the automation and testing division of Intier Automotive. Gabiniewicz has been working with students in the FIRST program for the past three years, and looks forward to working with Novi High students on this year's new challenge. ``The ability that the students have to take university-level engineering and just run with it -- it astounds me. These kids will be good engineers, and I have to pause sometimes and think about where they would be without this opportunity. We look at it as a long-term investment in not only the community but also our profession as engineers.''

Following the concept-to-completion period of activity, teams can compete in regional events and qualify to compete in the championship at Epcot Center, where there are team T-shirts and buttons, cheering sections, mascots and bands, referees and scoring, plus award trophies and medals. At the 2001 Championship, over $1.2 million in scholarships were awarded to students participating on FIRST teams.

The competition is a program of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a nonprofit organization founded in 1989 by inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen. The program inspires students to take a look at further studies and careers in engineering, technology and science, and motivates them to demand more exposure to these fields and the professionals who are active in them. The competition aims to show students not only that technological fields hold varied opportunities for success and are accessible and rewarding, but also that the basic concepts of science, math, engineering, and invention are exciting and interesting.

The FIRST Robotics Competition has grown at a rate of about 40 percent per year since it started in 1992. That year, there was one competition with 23 teams in 13 states. In 2001, there were 14 competitions with 535 teams in 42 states, the District of Columbia, Canada and Brazil.

Intier Automotive, the interiors company of Magna International, is an innovative leader in the development, manufacture and sequencing of complete vehicle interiors for original equipment manufacturers of cars and light trucks. It is one of the world's largest suppliers of interior automotive systems, including cockpit modules, modular door panels, complete seat systems and specialty seat mechanisms, overhead systems and closure systems, including latching systems, glass moving systems, electromechanical systems, power sliding doors and liftgates and door modules. Intier has approximately 20,000 employees at 62 production facilities, 17 product development, engineering and testing centers, and 13 sales offices throughout North America, Brazil, Europe, and China.